Claws x Code

Joi and Jey map the timeline of tech booms they've survived - from dot com to cloud computing, remote work, social video, and now AI - while discovering the next frontier is literally space. Joi's LinkedIn deep dive uncovers Hillary Coe, SpaceX's first Director of Design who's now Chief Design and Marketing Officer at Vast, building the world's first commercial space station.

From the uncomfortable truth that 90% of early internet was porn and research to social media creating the first universal use case, we trace how each boom built the foundation for the next. Joi breaks down why cloud computing enabled remote work, which enabled video social, which created the training data for AI - and now AI is accelerating space colonization.

Plus: LinkedIn as the ultimate discovery platform for finding "boss bitches" leading entire industries, why rocket design is literally rocket science, and how Vast is hiring project managers for commercial space stations. The internet evolved from research and porn to connecting everyone - now it's taking us off-planet.

Hillary Coe's LinkedIn about section says it all: "Emmy award-winning design leader employing bold multiplatform innovations to solve the world's greatest challenges." From leading visual strategy for a new era of spaceflight at SpaceX to developing long-term life in space at Vast - this is what surviving multiple tech booms looks like.

Hosts: Joi (LinkedIn discovery specialist with tech boom timeline expertise) and Jey (creative force collaborator ready for space station design projects)

Joi and Jey tackle the brutal reality of tech layoffs, where 6,000 Microsoft employees got axed while the company dumps $13 billion into OpenAI. We dive into the uncomfortable truth that women and underrepresented workers bore the brunt of Big Tech's "efficiency" cuts - HR, project managers, recruiters were the first to go after being recruited post-pandemic.

From tariff chaos disrupting global supply chains to the dark reality of semiconductor manufacturing (spoiler: those jobs were outsourced because they cause higher cancer rates), we explore why America's tech independence comes at a human cost. Jey shares intel from Silicon Valley about friends now packing semiconductor glass, while Joi drops LinkedIn unicorn startup knowledge.

Plus: Why we'll have moon colonies within three years, Vast already booking lunar flights (engineers only, no designers needed), and how LinkedIn's algorithm reveals your career prestige level. The pendulum is swinging hard on AI job displacement, but maybe anesthesiologists should worry less about hallucinating algorithms and more about getting to space before the rest of us.

Dark topics, hopeful futures, and the wild reality that your LinkedIn feed is curated by billion-dollar valuations.

Hosts: Joi (LinkedIn algorithm decoder with moon colony predictions) and Jey (Silicon Valley semiconductor intel with unicorn startup street cred)

Joi and Jey get real about their hardware obsessions and the tools that actually matter for creative work. From Joi's three-laptop setup for serious coding and IDE work to Jey's $1000 iPad that doubles as an expensive coaster, we break down why your hardware choices reveal everything about how you work.

Joi dives into why mechanical keyboards are perfect for long nails (typing with nail tips hits different), while Jey explores the generational shift toward mobile-first design workflows. We cover why Figma still runs better on Mac despite being browser-based, the tactile satisfaction of silent switches, and how Gen Z's phone-native approach to design is actually revolutionary.

Plus: Why the Sidewalk Chalk keyboard represents the perfect marriage of aesthetics and function, the reality of capacitive vs mechanical for serious work, and how your keyboard choice basically announces your profession to the world.

For creators who understand that tools shape workflow, not the other way around.

Hosts: Joi (three-laptop warfare specialist with mechanical keyboard obsession) and Jey (iPad coaster innovator seeking the perfect setup)

Joi dives deep into Google's Material Design 3 Expressive update and the data that's reshaping how we think about UI design. With 87% of people aged 18-24 favoring expressive communications in design, Google just validated what we've been feeling - boring UI doesn't capture attention anymore.

From gradient-heavy interfaces to micro-animations that feel like "sugary candy treats," Joi breaks down the Material 3 shape library, button radii evolution, and why purple is becoming the unifying brand color. Plus: The genius circle cursor hover effect that inverts text, floating action button animations, and how Material 3 is already built into Figma for immediate use.

This isn't just a design system update - it's Google backing what designers have known: emotional and expressive storytelling in UX is most effective, and the statistics finally prove it.

Host: Joi Jetson (Material 3 enthusiast ready to dive into expressive design libraries)

Jey puts Joi onto the AWS Data Marketplace rabbit hole, where you can literally buy 50 billion web pages of human consciousness - from Common Crawl to ocean current data to seismic activity. Joi explores how social media created the perfect training dataset for AI before generative AI even existed, and why Elon's $44B Twitter acquisition was always about the data, not disruption.

Plus: Why Grok AI is hilariously broken, only trained on post-November 2024 Twitter data, and how poor trust and safety decisions lead to AI models going completely off the rails. From bathroom scrolling habits to the reality of human behavioral data collection, we break down the real cost of treating consciousness like a commodity.

The uncomfortable truth: We're living through the biggest cultural shift in human history, and most people don't understand that everything from their toilet time to their location data is being packaged and sold.

Hosts: Joi (AWS Data Marketplace explorer with digital privacy concerns) and Jey (the one who opened this rabbit hole)

Joi and Jey dive deep into the hidden costs of AI data centers and their impact on local communities, from 20% electricity bill increases in Pennsylvania to the parallels with industrial pollution history. We explore Congressional hearings on AI energy consumption, the forever chemicals crisis, and why data center security is becoming a national concern.

Plus: Joi's unpopular Magic Mouse love story, why cars look like Apple mice, and the debate over naked iPhones versus case culture. From solar-powered keyboards to Cameron Diaz's alleged solar car, we cover tech aesthetics, Apple's ecosystem design philosophy, and why the Magic Mouse charging port placement might actually be genius UX.

Hosts: Joi (Magic Mouse defender with naked iPhone energy) and Jey (solar keyboard nostalgia enthusiast)

Joi and Jey dive into the reality that most people are terrible at AI prompting, despite thinking they've mastered it after a few ChatGPT conversations. From Joi's advanced Claude project setups to the shocking revelation that 30% of tech workers got axed between 2023-2025, we explore what it actually means to be an "AI OG" after just one year of serious collaboration.

Joi breaks down her systematic approach to Claude Projects while Jey shares Gemini Gems, and we get into the philosophical divide of AI business models when most companies are just API wrappers. Plus: Why AWS literally owns the internet, how schema optimization now targets AI crawlers instead of just Google, and the uncomfortable truth that Amazon knows everything about you whether you shop there or not.

The pendulum is swinging fast on AI adoption—from Microsoft firing 6,000 people to Duolingo hiring humans back—and we dissect why trust and safety should be a third of every AI company's budget instead of an afterthought.

Hosts: Joi (20+ Claude projects and counting) and Jey (Gemini Gems explorer with trust and safety concerns)

Jey Austen kicks off about hot professors giving Stanford lectures, while Joi Jetson explores Sequoia Capital's AI Ascent series. Jey dives deep into the philosophical divide shaping AI's future with Mark Zuckerberg's claims about pioneering open source AI with Llama 4, then Joi pivots to cybersecurity and phishing attacks as bad actors weaponize these same tools.

From AWS Guardrails to voice-generated phishing attacks, we break down why the open source vs. closed source debate isn't just academic—it's about national security, energy consumption, and whether giving everyone access to powerful AI is innovation or invitation to chaos.

Plus: Why your cybersecurity habits matter more than ever when AI can perfectly mimic anyone's voice.

Hosts: Joi (AWS Guardrails enthusiast) and Jey (Stanford lecture connoisseur)

Joi dives deep into GSAP (GreenSock Animation Platform) after discovering it on a site called Genie and being blown away by the micro-animations. From questioning why we settled for sterile design to exploring how creatives need to level up their interaction skills as AI makes coding more accessible.

We cover the evolution from Windows Media Player visualizers to today's over-organized databases, why users are craving delight in their digital experiences, and how tools like Lottie and GSAP are changing the animation game for designers.

Plus: Why everything you know in tech goes out of date every two years, and why that's actually exciting.

Hosts: Joi Jetson (design engineer with GSAP curiosity) and Jey Austen (illustrator embracing animation workflows)

Welcome to our pilot episode where we attempt to figure out what kind of podcast we are while Jey debates the aesthetic merits of their mullet and Joi shares intel on grown men with tooth gems. Because if all art imitates life, then apparently life imitates a chaotic design sprint.

What starts as banter about dental accessories somehow evolves into deeper conversations about our industry. This is the small talk that happens when artists collaborate - the tangents that somehow lead to breakthrough insights, or at least good stories.

Spoiler alert: We don't answer the title question, but we do establish that we're two senior designers who've been pollinating the internet since I built my first site on AOL Hometown. Consider this your warning.

Hosts: Joi (design engineer with AOL Hometown nostalgia) and Jey (illustrator with green hair and strong opinions about oral accessories)